Freestyle Theology
The church that shaped you came from somewhere. Usually somewhere older, stranger, and more wounded than anyone ever told you.
Freestyle Theology is a podcast about the history of Christianity, and about what that history did to people's bodies, families, and nervous systems. Bradley Melle is a historian of Christianity with a PhD from the University of Toronto, where he studied the entangled history of Christianity, colonialism, and Indigenous peoples. Every week he and his guests take one question and walk it back as far as it goes.
When did white people stop dancing? Where did Hell actually come from? How did the church get so good at finding enemies? What did plague do to the western imagination? Why do purity, punishment, and control keep resurfacing in the same places, century after century?
The method here is simple: Approach the dysfunction you see with curiosity. Then go looking for the catastrophe that formed it.
These aren't lectures. They are conversations with people who know things, and love to wonder and wander. That's the freestyle part.
For anyone rethinking faith, anyone deconstructing, anyone who left the church, anyone still in it and quietly wondering, and anyone who just wants to understand how the West turned out like this.
Wondering freely, out loud.
Episodes
44 episodes
Let's Talk About: Unearned Grace, Unearned Power
In 1778, a watchmaker's son (who bought his way into the French nobility) wrote something that French students still have to learn for their exams. A servant, alone in the dark, rails at the noble count he works for: “What did you do to deserve...
Let's Talk About: Purity
The Reformation is usually taught as liberation. Throwing off the shackles of the past. But it's better understood as a purification project. And purification projects rarely end well…This is our sixth conversation together, and here Ngo...
Let's Talk About: 1500s Minimalism
Rip up the linoleum and there's beautiful hardwood underneath. Restore the original windows. Strip the paint off the trim. Look how much better this house is without a thousand years of junk piled on top of it!That's Ngofeen's working i...
Let's Talk About: Original Sin
Most people think original sin means we're born bad. But that's not really what Augustine said. What he actually argued is stranger (and colder) than that, and I explain it in this episode: You aren't bad, you're incapable. Your will i...
Let's Talk About: Enemies
Let's Talk About: Enemies (with Fr. Joash Thomas)Jesus told his followers to love their enemies. Western Christianity went on to build one of the most sophisticated systems in history for finding them.That chasm is what I...
Let's Talk About: Cursed Objects
A Christian builder in Texas prays over every house he puts up and stamps John 3:16 into the driveway. A family member rebukes your depression in the name of Jesus. A Congolese aunt tells you not to buy that carving: it's demonic and it can hur...
Let's Talk About: My Origin Story (How I Became a Historian of Christian Dysfunction)
I've never been able to explain how I became a historian of Christian dysfunction - until I sat down to record this.This week there's no guest and no lesson plan. It's just me in my office, tracing how church history went from meaning a...
Let's Talk About: The Civilizing Mission
Register now for Dr. Bradley Melle's upcoming online seminar @ bradleymelle.com/learnLet's Talk About: The Civilizing Mission (feat. Ngofeen Mputubwele)What does a civiliz...
Let's Talk About: Is Christianity Good?
Let’s Talk About: Is Christianity Good?What happens when you stop being able to balance Christianity’s ledger? When “But the church built hospitals” no longer cancels out the crime of residential schools, the crusades, or the doct...
Let's Talk About: The Disastrous 1300s
Let’s Talk About: The Disastrous 1300sWhat happens to a civilization's relationship with the body when a third of it perishes in a few short years? In part two of my ongoing conversation with journalist, playwright, and opera sing...
Let's Talk About: The Medieval Body
Playwright, journalist, and podcaster Ngofeen Mputubwele is writing a play about a deceptively simple question: when did white people stop dancing? What began as a conversation about medieval bodies quickly became something much large: a histor...
Let's Talk About: Other Religions
Dr. Bradley Melle sits down again with Fr. Joash Thomas - priest, author of The Justice of Jesus, and descendant of the ancient St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, India - for a conversation that reframes everything We...
Let's Talk About: Threat & Theology
Brad is back down the rabbit hole, and this time, Augustine is the way in.Why Augustine of Hippo is arguably the real founder of Western Christianity, and what that means for everything you think you know about Paul, original sin, a...
Let's Talk About: Where Am I?
Brad is back, and this episode is an honest account of where he's been.After months of silence, Brad returns to the mic to share what's kept him away: the death of his mother in late October, a brutal flare of his ulcerative colitis...
Let's Talk About: Power
Jesus gave away power. What does that actually mean...?What does it really mean to have power—and what happens when we hoard it? In this thought-provoking conversation, historian and theologian Dr. Bradley Melle (Freestyle Theology) sit...
Let's Talk About: Meditation
Can meditation heal spiritual wounds? In this episode of Freestyle Theology, Brad and Brielle unpack their journeys with depression, anxiety, meditation, and spiritual growth. They explore how mindfulness, breathwork, and even sung Scripture ca...
Let's Talk About: Today's Evangelical Tantrum
In this raw and wide-ranging episode, Brad is joined again by Rev. Joash Thomas to explore the emotional and spiritual roots of what Brad calls the “evangelical tantrum”—the reactive, fear-fueled backlash of white conservative Christianity in t...
Let's Talk About: The New American Theocracy
What if the rise of Christian nationalism in the U.S. isn’t just political—but the fruit of a long, coordinated theological strategy?In this episode of Freestyle Theology, Dr. Bradley Melle sits down with Margaret Bronson...
Let's Talk About: Christianity & Colonialism
What If Colonialism Lives On—in Our Bodies, Beliefs, and Churches?In this wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Bradley Melle is joined once again by Rev. Joash Thomas for an in-person deep dive into Christianity, colonialism, and in...
Let's Talk About: Modern Fragmentation
Why does everything feel so fractured—and has it always been this way?In this solo episode, Dr. Bradley Melle dives deep into the 500-year story of fragmentation in the Western world, from the shattering of medieval consensus in t...
Let's Talk About: Christian Supremacy
Church historian Bradley Melle chats with Rev. Joash Thomas about Christian supremacy, colonialism, and trauma in the church. Brad and Joash dive into how Christianity's history—from Constantine to today's Christian nationalism—has often priori...
Let's Talk About: Love & Safety
In this episode of Freestyle Theology, Dr. Bradley Melle and Brielle Goheen dive into the complexities of love and its manifestation within church communities. They explore the idea of love as a multifaceted and often misunderstood concept in r...
Let's Talk About: Residential Schools as Church History
In this enlightening episode of "Freestyle Theology," Dr. Bradley Melle, a historian of Global Christianity, dives deep into the history of colonialism, Indigenous Christianity, and the impact of residential schools. Joining forces with John Si...